History repeats for fourth time

It is not unfamiliar territory for the Indians. First it was Sri Lanka, then England came twice and now it is Australia - for the 4th time in 4 successive ICC events India stand on the brink of elimination from an ICC event. And things have been complicated this time. Yuvraj and Veeru have been sorely missed. And without them (and with Dravid) the Indian team looks the weakest of the 4 different teams that took the challenge. The only time Team India overcame they challenge (2007 T20 World Cup v England Group match) they went on to win the tournament. Incidentally, that happened in South Africa too. Fingers crossed!! Will history repeat on that front?

Of bungee jumps and contract refusals

Cricket seems to have entered a new phase. The advent of T20 has now resulted in a new business terminology - freelance cricketer*. After Andrew Symonds, its not the turn of Andrew Flintoff to turn a freelance cricketer. Freedy went to the extend of rejecting a contract offered by the ECB stating that he had to take a bungee jump in a television program as the reason for rejection. Undoubtedly it's the lucrative money from the IPL that must have prompted this decision. But just as players tend to be clever when it comes to earning money, the IPL has gone a step further. They have ruled that a player can play in the IPL only if he has received clearance from his national board. Now that's a case of the snake eating itself - How is it going to end?

* A freelance cricketer is someone who doesn't have a contract with his national team board and is available to play domestic cricket (especially T20 cricket) at his will for teams in any country.

IPL 3.0 - dying already?

It looks like the IPL and KBC have so much in common. After taking India by storm with KBC 1 and KBC 2, KBC3 bored the Indian audience because of the lack of novelty in its concept.
Now IPL 3.0 seems set to run into the same fate - something aggravated by other reasons also. A similar fate struck the Premier Hockey League a few years back. Looks like IPL could go that way. So much for a "cricket crazy" nation.